Phoenix officials want to make sure smoke shops don’t crop up near schools or cluster near one another in the future, so they passed an ordinance strengthening the city’s restrictions.

They say more of these businesses have popped up recently — most likely in anticipation of Arizona’s 2010 voter-approved medical-marijuana law, which is finally producing dispensaries. The state recently licensed the state’s first dispensary, a facility in Glendale, and Phoenix could have up to 15 locations.

If more people have access to pot, they’ll need the paraphernalia to smoke it — and that’s where the smoke shops come in. At least, that’s how the theory goes.

However, Phoenix officials don’t yet know how many smoke shops have opened within the city. Nor do they know how many are clustered, or how many are near schools. City planning officials don’t track that information.

They say they have anecdotal information about the increase in smoke shops but could not identify locations when asked.

The new ordinance, which goes into effect Dec.1, is more of a pre-emptive measure, they say.

No dispensaries have opened in Phoenix. And opponents continue their legal fight, arguing that federal drug laws pre-empt the voter-approved law.

New regulations

Phoenix city leaders unanimously approved an ordinance for smoke shops in October.

The new regulations will do two things: Place a 500-foot buffer between smoke shops and require shops to locate 500 feet away from the schools, parks, playgrounds and day-care facilities.

The new rule applies to new smoke shops, which are defined as “cigar shops, hookah lounges, head shops and other retail establishments where the primary activity is the sale of tobacco and/or tobacco-related goods/paraphernalia,” according to the city.

The new city rules would exclude convenience stores.

Gates and District5 Councilman Daniel Valenzuela say they pushed for the ordinance because of neighborhood concerns about the type of people smoke shops attract and health concerns. Valenzuela believes this action “protects neighborhoods.”

Reaction to smoke shops

Northern Arizona University Regents Professor Zachary A.Smith said city leaders don’t need hard numbers to create regulations. Smith is a professor of public administration and state and local politics.

Ordinarily, the city would find out how many smoke shops Phoenix has before crafting a rule, but he called this move “good politics.”

“You don’t even know yet what role medical marijuana will play, and we certainly don’t know if there will be any connections to smoke shops,” Smith said.

Bret Frimmel, a northeast Phoenix businessman, said the city is pandering to neighborhoods. Smoke shops have popped up everywhere in the Valley and upset people, Frimmel said.

Neighbors protested in April when he leased space to smoke shop High Maintenance on the southeastern corner of 32nd Street and Shea Boulevard. Some neighbors said the new shop would sell bongs and other marijuana paraphernalia and bring down the value of their homes and tempt minors.

Frimmel said people overreacted.

A group of residents said they would petition the city to change zoning regulations for smoke shops. Gates, who represents the area, said he pulled together a group of area residents, business owners and others to study what’s needed to the revitalize area.

Frimmel said Phoenix officials are “trying to save face a little bit” to appease constituents because they don’t support medical marijuana.

“They don’t take the time to look at what is sold in smoke shops,” Frimmel said.

Each smoke shop sells different items, he said.

“Some shops choose to sell bath salts, some of them don’t,” Frimmel said. “Other stores, they sell clothing, glass and incense. I didn’t want the bath salt and spice and the crystal methadone around my shopping area ... the reality is people are prone to smoke marijuana one way or another.”

Josh Yalda, One Stop Smoke Shop manager in west Phoenix, said the shop prohibits anyone under age 18 from entering the shop. The shop opened this year.

Yalda said the market drives the demand for smoke shops.

“Now that they legalized medical marijuana, they come to the store, and people need supplies for it,” he said.

Janice Gordon-Caddy, president of the Springs at Yorkshire Block Watch in north Phoenix, said the city should go even further and restrict all smoke shops to industrial areas.

Christina Plante, with Sunnyslope Where Impacting Neighborhood Succeeds, applauds the city but says the zoning ordinance is missing one element.

“Of course, the critical piece to making laws and ordinances relevant is enforcement,” Plante said. “In addition to addressing saturation, I’d like to see increased enforcement targeting retailers who sell ‘tobacco’-related paraphernalia to minors.”

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

azcentral.com has switched to the Facebook comment system on its blogs. Existing blog comments will display, but new comments will only be accepted via the Facebook comment system. To begin commenting, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. While we welcome you to join conversations, readers are responsible for their comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.